High Gain?

garyalex High Gain?

I’ve read in more than one thread that the First Watt SIT-3 should be used with a high-gain preamp. I’m wondering what the number is that determines whether a preamp’s line section is considered to be high gain or not?

It will all depend on how much your source gives out, and how efficient your speakers are. You can clip the FW Sit-3 with just 3v in from the source

Try this put your source direct into your Sit-3 and play a known track that starts of very quite and builds up.
Then you’ll know how much "if any" gain a pre will need, you could get away with just a $49 Schiit Sys passive or low gain Schiit Freya pre

Cheers George

There is usually a spec titled Gain.  It is usually given in both preamp and amp specs.  It can vary from 3dB to 29dB and probably higher in preamps.

Most preamps are higher gain and, actually, having too much gain in our preamps and amps is more of a problem than having too little.  When you have too much gain you keep your volume control below, say, 9 o'clock.  This can result in detail being lost.

If Pass says to use a high gain preamp,  I'd look for one with a Gain spec of 20dB or more, and there are a lot of them around.

https://www.firstwatt.com/prod.html

one can see from the chart that even among nelson's gaggle of fw amps, the sit3 is particularly low gain... so yes it would benefit from a higher gain preamp, line stage or direct source

garyalex

It’s very simple.

If it goes loud enough for you with your gear, you don’t need extra gain.

Remember what Nelson Pass says about "added gain" that’s not needed. Your just adding more noise with it, by throwing away vital "source signal" to ground with the volume control, just to so you can make it back up again with that extra "added gain" stage, which introduces more noise and distortions.

Cheers George

Experiment. The suggestion using a Schiit SYS is very valid. I own two FW amps. An F5,and J2. I have two systems. One uses a passive pre,the other is an active tube. I have run both amps with the passive,driving a pair of not too sensitive Graham Chartwell LS3/5's. The cops will definitely not be called to my house for disturbing the peace,but the volume gets loud enough for my needs.